“To help us foster more authentic engagement, teams at Facebook have reviewed and categorized hundreds of thousands of posts to inform a machine learning model that can detect different types of engagement bait. Posts that use this tactic will be shown less in News Feed.”

The aim is to increase the authenticity of posts and prevent engagement baiters- especially serial offenders- from artificially inflating their reach with this tactic.

The takeaway for brands here remains the same: Work to post content that benefits your audience, either in terms of providing helpful resources, entertaining them, or both.

Further updates: Since this post was published, Facebook announced more updates to their News Feed that will impact publishers. Here’s a take from Marketing Land, and another from Social Media Today.

Key takeaway: Know your audience

The best way to do this is to measure the impact of your content. Which types of content are they responding to? Which times are your posts receiving the most engagement? Which formats are working best for your brand?